“No matter what I do, my Mac is still slow”, an average tech-consultant hears this phrase multiple times a day. Give a person even the most powerful computer, and pretty soon it will be cluttered with apps, extensions, and things that are too much for it to handle. To reverse it, one has to go back and сlean up the mess, removing memory agents one by one. Prepare for a fight — every byte of memory is at stake. So let’s put your Mac on a diet and get it more free RAM to breathe freely.
- Restart Windows Explorer to Clear Memory 1. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del keys at the same time and select Task Manager from the listed options. 2.Find Explorer and click Restart.
- If your computer is dusty inside, go and blow out the case first, before pulling out any RAM modules. It will make the job of clean the RAM far easier. Prepare a good enough workspace. Unplug your computer from power and everything else so you can move it to an uncluttered work area.
- On Windows 10, the easiest way to clear RAM without restarting is via a familiar tool, Task Manager. You can use Microsoft’s tool to search for hungry programs and end them.
First, remove desktop clutter. Get a combination of Setapp apps that clear away unneeded desktop files.
How To Clean Up Ram In Laptop Free
There is no practical sense in cache cleaning because Windows will use this memory easily when needed. But you may use RamMap tool ind its Empty functions.
Download Declutter Free“Your system has run out of application memory”
How do you know your Mac is low on memory? Floating “rainbow wheels” aside, you may notice your Mac now takes ages to load. You’ll also see many browser applications crashing. You’ll be also thrown warning messages as “Your system has run out of application memory”. To help it, you should first visit the Activity monitor to see memory usage on Mac.
How to check RAM usage on Mac
Go to Applications and type in Activity Monitor in the search bar. This invokes a good old Activity Monitor that should tell how much free memory you’ve got left.
A shortcut to open Activity Monitor:
Press F4 and start typing Activity Monitor in the search bar.
I’ve attached a screenshot from my Mac and as you can see my memory usage almost reached full capacity. Here’s what it all means:
App memory: taken by apps and processes
Wired memory: reserved by apps, can’t be freed up
Compressed: inactive, can be used by other apps
Swap used: memory used by macOS
Cached files: memory you can really use
Notice the colored graph under Memory Pressure. If your graph is all but red and yellow, your Mac is really gasping for fresh memory. It seems counter-intuitive, but “available memory” your Activity Monitor is not that important after all. In fact, it’s a system intended behavior to use all memory resources when available. On the contrary, the Memory Pressure graph is much more telling, so grow a habit to check this graph in the Activity Monitor every now and then.
How to check CPU usage on Mac
Open the CPU tab in Activity Monitor to keep in check CPU-heavy processes. Normally an app would be using 0-4% of CPU. If it takes abnormally more than that, go inside that particular item in the list and press the Quit button.
How to free up memory on Mac
Tip # 1. Remove Login Items to lower Mac memory usage
Login items are programs that load automatically upon Mac startup. Some of them covertly add themselves to the list and this is no good. If you’re looking to free up RAM, they are the first candidates for deletion. Don’t worry, you’re not deleting the app itself, you just stop it from auto-launching every time.
So, to remove Login Items and at the same time reduce your memory usage of your Mac, you need to:
- Open System Preferences and select Users & Groups.
- Click your nickname on the left.
- Select the Login Items tab.
- Check programs you don’t want to load as your Mac starts.
- Press the “–” sign below.
Now, you won’t see these apps pop up the moment you turn on your Mac. Although this method doesn’t require some superpowers of yours, some special Mac optimization and memory cleaner tools may do the job faster and ensure the smooth performance of your Mac. CleanMyMac X is an excellent example of such software. Here’s how to disable Login Items with CleanMyMac X:
- Download it for free and go to the Optimization tab.
- Check Login Items to see the list of apps that get opened when you start your Mac.
- Click Remove.
As you’ve already come to the Optimization module of CleanMyMac, you can also fix hung apps and heavy memory consumers there. In this way, you’ll free up the solid amount of RAM on Mac — 100% free of charge.
Tip # 2. Free up disk space if Mac is low on memory
The available space on your Mac’s drive translates into virtual memory. This comes to save you when you’ve run out of physical RAM. So now your computer relies on your hard drive space to keep your apps going.
The classic geek rule of thumb holds it that you should keep at least 20% of disk space on your startup drive. Not only this potentially reduces your future spending on iCloud storage but it also keeps your Mac speedier.
What to delete to free up space:
- Large unused files, like movies
- Old downloads
- Rarely used applications
- System junk
But here’s a simpler solution to save your time — clean up your drive with CleanMyMac X— the app I’ve mentioned above. Many users recommend it as an excellent way to free up more space because it searches for large & old files, useless system files, Photo junk, mail attachments and shows everything you can safely delete. Interestingly, it finds about 74 GB of junk on an average computer.
Extra trick: How to free up RAM on Mac with CleanMyMac X
If you have downloaded CleanMyMac, you may also take advantage of its amazing feature — the ability to free up RAM in a few seconds. Try this next time you see “Your system has run out of application memory” message.
- Go to the Maintenance tab on the left.
- Click Free Up RAM.
- Click Run.
As simple as that!
And you can do it even if you download a free version of the app.
Tip # 3. Clean up your Desktop
This tip always comes at the bottom of instructions and unfairly so as it is quite effective. Without even looking at your Desktop I would assume it’s cluttered with mountains of icons. Thing is, your macOS was designed in a way that it treats every Desktop icon as a little active window. The more icons, the heavier memory usage on Mac. So in order to release available memory resources, it’s recommended to keep your Desktop clean.
You don’t have to do it all by yourself. With apps like Declutter and Spotless, every desktop cleaning session will be scheduled in advance and executed automatically. Your only job is to define the rules on how your files should be organized.
Tip #4. Clear cache files
Another way to free up RAM on Mac is to clear it of cache files. Of course, it won’t save you gigabytes of space, but deleting cache regularly, you can help your Mac run faster and avoid system issues.
So, to remove cache files on your Mac, you need to:
- Open Finder.
- From the Go menu, select Go to Folder.
- Type ~/Library/Caches in the field and press Go.
- In the window that appears, you will see all your cache files.
- Press Command+A to select all files or delete files one by one.
- Enter your user name and password to confirm.
If you find some files still in the folder after you emptied it, maybe you have some windows open on your Mac. Just like that, you can save up some space on your Mac. Don’t forget to empty the bin afterward.
Tip # 5. Tune up Chrome’s Task Manager
Although Google Chrome is not the one to blame for massive memory usage, it can indeed affect your Mac's performance. If you use Chrome as your primary browser, you probably have many windows opened there. Chrome runs a lot of processes to ensure a fast browsing experience for you. So, it uses your RAM for storing your tabs, plugins, and extensions. Look at how many entries Google Chrome has in Activity Monitor:
The question then arises, 'Why does Chrome use so much RAM?' The thing is that each process is responsible for a separate plugin or extension of your browser. For example, when a tab unexpectedly falls, you need to refresh it to continue your work there. If one process were responsible for all tabs and extensions, you would need to restart the whole browser instead. Can you imagine how many times would you do that? That’s the proper answer to why Chrome uses so much RAM.
I’ve been using Chrome for some years only to discover (recently) that Chrome had a task manager of its own. You can use it to force quit memory-heavy processes in the browser. It’s a handy tool because it lets you see how a page weighs on CPU usage on a Mac.
- Go to Chrome settings (dotted icon in the top right corner)
- Click More tools -> Task Manager
To free up even more RAM, close the GPU process. The GPU Process, though helpful in theory to accelerate pages, eats up a considerable amount of memory. Click to end it to free up RAM on your Mac.
Tip # 6. Manage RAM usage with CleanMyMac X menu
CleanMyMac X has another useful and convenient feature for managing your Mac’s performance and memory usage. As you install CleanMyMac X and start it for the first time, it’s icon will appear in your menu bar. Click the icon to open the CleanMyMac X menu. Here you can find updates on the current condition of your Mac and perform quick tweaks to increase your Mac's speed. Whenever you feel like your Mac underperforms, open the CleanMyMac X menu to check how much RAM is available and free it up as well.
Tip # 7. Close Finder windows
Okay, suppose you’re still asking yourself, how do I clear RAM on my MacBook Pro/MacBook Air. The next trick is as magical (you’ll see for yourself) as it is time-saving. It’s no secret that each window in the Finder eats up RAM. But how many open windows are there? Some of them are collapsed or stacked in some blind spot on your screen. This Finder command merges all your windows into one. See how to do it:
Click on Finder > Window > Merge All Windows
Now you can manage Finder windows more effectively and free up memory on MacBook.
What else you can do to minimize memory usage on Mac
I’ve saved the easiest tips for the end, as long as these ones are self-explanatory.
- Replace AdBlock (very memory-demanding) with a lighter extension
- Keep fewer opened tabs in the browser
- Restart your Mac more often to free up RAM
- Close all hung-up print queues
That was my take on how to make your Mac a bit speedier to use. If you’re looking for more guidance, check simple ways to speed up your Mac.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to check application memory on Mac?
To check RAM usage on your Mac, go to Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities). In the Memory tab, you will see all the active processes that are using your Mac’s RAM. At the end of the window, there is a Memory Used graph, which indicates how much application memory is used.
How to find out whether your Mac needs more RAM?
Your Mac may be using almost all its RAM, but you don’t need more if it’s using it efficiently. Open Activity Monitor and go to the Memory tab. The Memory Pressure graph shows the current condition of your RAM: green color means your Mac’s using RAM effectively, while yellow is a sign that some application or process is using too much of application memory. The red memory pressure signals that your Mac needs more RAM.
How to quickly free up RAM on your MacBook?
To free up RAM on your Mac, firstly, you should find out what app uses so much of your memory. The memory-heavy programs are listed in Activity Monitor, Memory tab. If there is an app you aren’t using at the moment, click it and press the “X” sign to quit it. This will, in turn, free some of the application memory.
When you’ve used all the available RAM on your PC or laptop you might notice the system taking way to long to complete tasks, for instance, opening the This PC on Windows 10 or open software from the start menu. This is due to all the physical and available RAM on your system is completed used. Now to make your work smoother you have to clean the computer of yours.
Now you’re thinking, how do I free up ram on windows 10? there are some ways or methods that can be used to free up ram on the computer to boost the speed of the system processing without getting more ram. In this article, we are going to share some of the easy ways to free up ram on Windows 10 PC or laptop without having a hassle.
What is RAM? And Its Use on Computer
Well, RAM (Random Access Memory) is stored in the chipset on your computer motherboard same goes for the laptop. On this chipset, the computer store the short terms data in technical terms the RAM is the hub of the storage for all the programs and activities running on the computer system.
The computer used this stored information to complete the tasks while getting the data on the same time. So technically, when you used all the ram of your computer this may cause slow processing and you might seem all the programs and applications start processing slowing.
Overall the speed of your computer system performance will be decreased. To speed up your computer performance and processing can be easily increased again by cleaning some of the RAM storage on your system. Use below given methods to free up the RAM without hassle.
How To Free up ram on Windows 10 (15 Ways)
If you’re struggling with low Windows 10 system performance or 100% memory usage, High CPU. Then use these methods to free up memory on your computer system to speed up the performance and reduced memory usage.
Restart The Computer System
The Ram is volatile memory, you’ll lose its contents when your computer turned off. Restarting your computer system will clear memory saved on RAM and reset all the running programs and applications. However, this method won’t clear the complete memory but it will boost up the processing speed of the system. By cleaning up apps running on the background on Windows 10.
Update The Windows 10 & Softwares
It is most important to run an updated version of applications and software including Windows to get better system performance.
You must update all the software on your computer system along with the Windows 10 updates. For this Press Windows + I to open Windows settings. Go to the Updates & Security section and click on Windows update > check for updates.
Lookup RAM Usage
Before getting started the clean of RAM in Windows, you must see what program or application causing the RAM usage for this to follow these below-given steps.
- Press Ctrl+Shift+ ESC buttons together to open Task Manager.
- Now, Click on More Details to expand the full utility.
- Under the Processes tab, click on the Memory heard to sort the app which using more memory
For more deep information regarding the system memory usage, you can go to the Performance tab. Under the CPU section click on Memory to complete an overview of the RAM usage on your computer system. Click on the Open Resource Monitor at the bottom of the Task Manager to get more information.
Use Low Memory Management Web Browsers
How To Clean Up Ram In Laptop Mac
If you’re using the default web browser such as Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer on Windows 10. Then you must try to change the web browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox. Both web browser has low memory management feature that consumes less memory of the RAM. Technically these two browsers are best for memory management on Windows 10 for fast web suffering and downloading.
Remove Bloatware Apps
You must don’t know some of the bloatware apps that you’ve installed on your Windows 10 PC that you’re currently not using them. Such as Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, and many more. These bloatware apps use more RAM of the computer.
If you don’t really need these apps on your computer. Then follow below-given steps to remove apps from Windows 10 PC to free up memory of the computer.
- Go to the Start Menu and type in the search bar “Apps and features” and open it.
- Now, Scroll to the bloatware app for example “WhatsApp”. Then click on it.
- Select the “Uninstall” button to remove it from the PC.
- Follow the on-screen uninstallation process to successfully remove the application.
After that restart, the PC to see the performance improvement or Else move to the next method.
Disable Startup Programs & Apps
If you’re using your Windows 10 computer for more than a year. Then you’ve downloaded and installed fair more software and some of this software and now some of that software was no longer in use. By using the third method Lookup Ram usage, Now you know which program using more memory and some of these apps are on startup.
This means the startup apps will automatically start running when you start your computer system. So to avoid this you can disable the startup apps on Windows 10 to boost up the memory of RAM.
Follow these below-given steps to disable startup programs.
Clean Up Laptop
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+ESC buttons together to open Task Manager.
2. Now, Go to the Startup tab.
3. Right-Click on the app that you no longer use on your PC.
4. From the pop-menu, select the “Disable” button.
Clear Web Browser Cookies & Cache Files
If you’re using the web browser on a regular basis to open different types of websites daily. Well, you must that every website has its cookies and cache that will be saved into the computer memory. When visited that website, Basically the cookies and cache help the web browser to load the web page faster for the next time when you open that website.
So, if you’ve haven’t cleared the cache on the web browser that you’re using on your computer for far longer. Then you’ve saved cookies and caches in GB that consuming the memory of the RAM. You can easily free up the RAM by clearing the cookies and cache of the web browser.
Note: After removing the cookies and cache in a web browser all the auto-login credentials will be deleted. You need to again login into the website.
To clear Cache and Cookies from a web browser (Google Chrome)
1. Open the Web Browser using the Start Menu or Desktop Shortcut.
2. Now Click on the (…) icon given at the right top corner to open the menu list.
3. Select, then Settings from the popup menu.
4. Navigate to the Privacy and Security section.
5. Now, Clear the Browsing Data, Cookies, Cache.
For the different web browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox, etc. There are different steps to clear the browsing history along with cookies and cache files.
Disable Background Apps
In Windows 10 lots of apps were running on the background of the system that cannot be seen in the display screen. However, these apps are consuming memory of the RAM and some of these apps are malware that affects computer running performance.
To increase the performance of the computer along with RAM memory, you’ve to stop the background running apps on the Windows 10.
1. Press Windows + I keys from the keyboard to open Windows Settings.
2. Go to the Privacy section.
3. Scroll down the left side panel. Then select “Background Apps” from the panel.
4. Now, disable the app that no longer in use.
Apps are often to run on the background of the computer system. This enables the apps to send notifications and update the software automatically which consumes lots of RAM memory without taking your permission. So you can easily turn off background apps on Windows 10 that are no longer useful.
Turn off Visual Effects
Windows 10 comes with pre-install visual effects such as tooltips, menus, and many more. This visual effect consumes lots of RAM space on the device, however, these visual effects won’t cause many issues. But if you’re device has lesser RAM then, in this case, you can disable visual effects to speed your computer performance by reducing the RAM storage.
To disable visual effects on Windows 10 follows –
1. Press Windows + E keys to open the File Explorer window.
2. Now, Right-Click on the This PC and choose Properties.
3. Go to the Advanced System Settings.
4. After, this Click on the Settings option given at the Performance section.
5. Click on “Adjust for the best performance”.
Now all the visual effects will be disabled with these settings. In case if you want to customize the visual effect settings and click on custom and select any visual effect that you want to use or like.
Modify Virtual Memory on Windows 10
In Windows, the page file that used hard disk storage and works as virtual memory and you can make adjustments in virtual memory to speed your computer and free up RAM on Windows 10.
Follow the steps to change virtual memory on Windows.
1. Open Control Panel using the Start Menu.
2. Change the Category view to Small icon (if needed)
3. Click on the “Advanced System Settings” to open it.
4. After this, on the Advanced tab, Select the Settings given under the Performance panel.
5. Switch to the Advanced tab again and click on the Change button.
Remove Web Browser Extensions
We all used Google Chrome, Firefox, or Edge browser on Windows 10. It doesn’t matter which browser you’re using on your system. However, to get additional features such as download any video from the web page we used web extension.
Technically, these extensions carry malware with them into your PC that used lots of the RAM. For instance, you can see using the Task Manager in the processes tab. Sometimes the Google Chrome using lots of RAM this is because of the extensions that you’ve installed on the Chrome browser.
To free up the ram on Windows 10 remove the unwanted web extensions from the web browser that you’re used on a daily basis such as Google Chome.
Clear Page File Before Turning off PC
When you restart your PC the page files don’t get cleared because they are stored in the memory of the RAM technically the short term files store in hard drive. So after the shutdown of the PC, the page files don’t remove the file still remain the same and consume the memory of the RAM.
Technically, clearing the page files from the PC hard drive will free up the RAM space on your computer system. Fortunately, you can make page files deleted automatically when the system shutdown. To do that follow below-given steps.
- Type “Registry Editor” in the start menu search bar.
- On the pop-up window select “Yes” to allow Registry Editor.
- On the left, scroll to, and select “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ” > “SYSTEM” > “CurrentControlSet. ”
- Find and choose “Control ” > “Session Manager.”
- Now, choose “Memory Management.”
- Select “ClearPageFileAtShutdown.”
- Enter the number “1” under the value data and hit OK.
Tip: Copy and paste this link to the registry editor to avoid steps
Final Words
All these methods helped you to clear the RAM of your computer system to boost system performance. These steps help me out a lot of increase my laptop gaming performance on Windows 10. Because due to this I ‘ve free up lots of RAM storage on the device.
Unlike me, you can also try all these methods to free up the RAM on Windows 10 PC or laptop to get smoother computer experience.
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